Miranda Lambert Is a Fighter, a Lover and an Optimist in New Song ‘Bluebird’ [Listen]

Miranda Lambert's "Bluebird" isn't the title track of her next studio album, but lyrically the soft rambler inspired the title, Wildcard. The song is delightfully optimistic, with forward-moving solutions and no drama.

As she does during "It All Comes Out in the Wash," the first official radio single from Wildcard, Lambert stays ahead of life's current during "Bluebird." The guitar and drum-driven Jay Joyce arrangement is reminiscent of the light singer-songwriter style exhibited on Revolution, her breakthrough album from 2009. All this talk of "the old Miranda" being back assumes the gunfire and venom version of herself that scorched airplay charts and sold millions upon millions of singles for a decade. This other version — the girl smiling a content kind of smile as she's singing and playing guitar — is missed in the caricature drawings of her the media so often commissions. This is partially because these songs have remained album cuts, and partially due to the nature of those headlines.

"If the house just keeps on winning / I got a wildcard up my sleeve / If love keeps giving me lemons / I just mix them in my drink," Lambert sings to start each chorus. It's a perfect lyric for her in 2019, one that helps us all move with her to this next chapter of her life and music. In that way it is the title track — or at least the definitive track of the 35-year-old's next album. It's time to feel good about feeling good.

What Inspired the New Miranda Lambert Song?

Miranda Lambert's "Bluebird" Lyrics:

Yeah I’m a turner / I turn pages all the time / Don’t like where I’m at / 34 was at so I turn to 35 / Yeah I’m a keeper / I keep digging down for the deep / Like the records I’m playing, they might keep you waiting but you know I’m gonna play it for keeps.

Chorus: If the house just keeps on winning / I got a wildcard up my sleeve / If love keeps giving me lemons / I just mix them in my drink / If the whole wide world stops singing and all the stars go dark / I keep a light on in my soul / I keep a bluebird in my heart.

I’m a giver / And I’m still giving ‘em hell / Forgiving’s pretty hard, so I made an art out of forgetting well / Yeah I’m a robber / I can turn 20 cents into a ten / And if I get confused and I start to lose I rob till it all makes sense.